Joined: Jun 01 2007 Posts: 12672 Location: Leicestershire.
Cronus wrote:Many, many people have Mein Kampf on their shelves, Mao's Little Red Book and feck knows what else.'.
Do they? I mean, don’t get me wrong I’ve read biographies of Stalin and Mao, but I’ve never had any interest in reading their writings. It’s not like these (e.g. Mein Kampf) are books that you stumble across in Waterstones or that normal friends and family get you for your birthday.
While historians with a interest in the area have legitimate use for it, who else is reading Mein Kampf? Apart from the obvious, but even now I’d like to think there aren’t many, many of them.
'Thus I am tormented by my curiosity and humbled by my ignorance.' from History of an Old Bramin, The New York Mirror (A Weekly Journal Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts), February 16th 1833.
Joined: Jan 30 2005 Posts: 7152 Location: one day closer to death
Mild Rover wrote:Do they? I mean, don’t get me wrong I’ve read biographies of Stalin and Mao, but I’ve never had any interest in reading their writings. It’s not like these (e.g. Mein Kampf) are books that you stumble across in Waterstones or that normal friends and family get you for your birthday.
While historians with a interest in the area have legitimate use for it, who else is reading Mein Kampf? Apart from the obvious, but even now I’d like to think there aren’t many, many of them.
I've read it, a friend's copy. And yes I've seen it on many bookshelves. With a modern mindset I found it cliched and dull. It was purely out of historical interest - around the same time I read Speer's book, and many more by the likes of Martin Gilbert, Antony Beevor, Max Hastings, James Holland and others. I tend to go through phases - WW1, WW2, Victorian Britain, ancient Britain, ancient Romans, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, etc, etc... There are some truly wonderful historical books out there. Some less so.
The point is that having a book written by someone who later became a bit nutty is only worth commenting on as a matter of interest: "didn't he go a bit batsht loony?". Unless you genuinely think Gove saw it and thought, "great stuff, he's now a holocaust denier, I could get on board with that"?
Joined: Jun 01 2007 Posts: 12672 Location: Leicestershire.
Cronus wrote:And yes I've seen it on many bookshelves.
I’ve seen my share of bookshelves but I don’t ever recall seeing a copy anywhere other than in news reports. And I feel like it is the sort of thing I would recall.
'Thus I am tormented by my curiosity and humbled by my ignorance.' from History of an Old Bramin, The New York Mirror (A Weekly Journal Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts), February 16th 1833.
Cronus wrote:RLFans wouldn't be half as much fun if I hadn't.
Yeah, it seems like the "cliff edge" prediction was right too ? You'll be telling us that, it's got nothing to do with Brexit and finding something or someone else to blame, just as I said you would
Anyone been looking back at the Prof. John Ashton timeline of events?
He basically said exactly what would happen on Question Time back in early March, and was of course ridiculed, especially when he was found to have Labour connections.
Many right wing social media accounts jumped straight on him. One described him as a 'loony hardcore Corbynista lefty', so of course, the smears gained traction. There was the usual anti-semitic smear, various pastings in the tabloids, and calls not to politicise the situation. They also got him on the old 'labour activist' smear when he appeared on Panorama.
Anyway, turns out he was bang on.
It's an interesting rabbit hole to disappear down. Start with Question Time on March 12, then look at social media and news articles from after the show. This article from a month later gives a decent roundup of what happened, there's a clip from his appearance on QT, too.
Here are some tweets from the show on March 12. Have a look at some of the replies. It's 'the public have had enough of experts' in a nutshell. Also check out Fiona Bruce's face of disdain when he mentions care homes in the second tweet's video.
Anyone been looking back at the Prof. John Ashton timeline of events?
He basically said exactly what would happen on Question Time back in early March, and was of course ridiculed, especially when he was found to have Labour connections.
Many right wing social media accounts jumped straight on him. One described him as a 'loony hardcore Corbynista lefty', so of course, the smears gained traction. There was the usual anti-semitic smear, various pastings in the tabloids, and calls not to politicise the situation. They also got him on the old 'labour activist' smear when he appeared on Panorama.
Anyway, turns out he was bang on.
It's an interesting rabbit hole to disappear down. Start with Question Time on March 12, then look at social media and news articles from after the show. This article from a month later gives a decent roundup of what happened, there's a clip from his appearance on QT, too.
Here are some tweets from the show on March 12. Have a look at some of the replies. It's 'the public have had enough of experts' in a nutshell. Also check out Fiona Bruce's face of disdain when he mentions care homes in the second tweet's video.
Joined: Jan 30 2005 Posts: 7152 Location: one day closer to death
King Street Cat wrote:Anyone been looking back at the Prof. John Ashton timeline of events?
He basically said exactly what would happen on Question Time back in early March, and was of course ridiculed, especially when he was found to have Labour connections.
Many right wing social media accounts jumped straight on him. One described him as a 'loony hardcore Corbynista lefty', so of course, the smears gained traction. There was the usual anti-semitic smear, various pastings in the tabloids, and calls not to politicise the situation. They also got him on the old 'labour activist' smear when he appeared on Panorama.
Anyway, turns out he was bang on.
It's an interesting rabbit hole to disappear down. Start with Question Time on March 12, then look at social media and news articles from after the show. This article from a month later gives a decent roundup of what happened, there's a clip from his appearance on QT, too.
Here are some tweets from the show on March 12. Have a look at some of the replies. It's 'the public have had enough of experts' in a nutshell. Also check out Fiona Bruce's face of disdain when he mentions care homes in the second tweet's video.
I remember his appearance and he was absolutely correct. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. I was well aware of the effect of CV19 around the world from the get-go as I was dealing with the effects of travel/border restrictions every day and watching as country by country the situation deepened.
It's worth recalling that even in early March, many eminent scientists still viewed this as another SARS/MERS - nasty but possible to contain and eliminate fairly successfully. We easily forget this is a new virus. Antigen and antibody tests barely existed, certainly not in large number, and those that did were often not accurate enough. The nature of the virus was largely unknown. We didn't know exactly what it did or exactly how infectious it was - something underestimated globally due to the fact people can be shedding whilst asymptomatic, unlike SARS/MERS. There's still a lot about it we don't know.
The West hadn't experienced SARS/MERS, unlike many countries in Asia, who therefore had responses and facilities in place for precisely such an event. Leaping into action wasn't as simple for us. That said, I've said before we were too late locking down and we could have done more.
I have no particular love for Fiona Bruce but you're seeing something that's not there. She simply looks at her notes and the audience and gives a little sigh. It's certainly not aimed at the mention of care homes.
King Street Cat wrote:Anyone been looking back at the Prof. John Ashton timeline of events?
He basically said exactly what would happen on Question Time back in early March, and was of course ridiculed, especially when he was found to have Labour connections.
Many right wing social media accounts jumped straight on him. One described him as a 'loony hardcore Corbynista lefty', so of course, the smears gained traction. There was the usual anti-semitic smear, various pastings in the tabloids, and calls not to politicise the situation. They also got him on the old 'labour activist' smear when he appeared on Panorama.
Anyway, turns out he was bang on.
It's an interesting rabbit hole to disappear down. Start with Question Time on March 12, then look at social media and news articles from after the show. This article from a month later gives a decent roundup of what happened, there's a clip from his appearance on QT, too.
Here are some tweets from the show on March 12. Have a look at some of the replies. It's 'the public have had enough of experts' in a nutshell. Also check out Fiona Bruce's face of disdain when he mentions care homes in the second tweet's video.
I remember his appearance and he was absolutely correct. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. I was well aware of the effect of CV19 around the world from the get-go as I was dealing with the effects of travel/border restrictions every day and watching as country by country the situation deepened.
It's worth recalling that even in early March, many eminent scientists still viewed this as another SARS/MERS - nasty but possible to contain and eliminate fairly successfully. We easily forget this is a new virus. Antigen and antibody tests barely existed, certainly not in large number, and those that did were often not accurate enough. The nature of the virus was largely unknown. We didn't know exactly what it did or exactly how infectious it was - something underestimated globally due to the fact people can be shedding whilst asymptomatic, unlike SARS/MERS. There's still a lot about it we don't know.
The West hadn't experienced SARS/MERS, unlike many countries in Asia, who therefore had responses and facilities in place for precisely such an event. Leaping into action wasn't as simple for us. That said, I've said before we were too late locking down and we could have done more.
I have no particular love for Fiona Bruce but you're seeing something that's not there. She simply looks at her notes and the audience and gives a little sigh. It's certainly not aimed at the mention of care homes.
Cronus wrote:I have no particular love for Fiona Bruce but you're seeing something that's not there. She simply looks at her notes and the audience and gives a little sigh. It's certainly not aimed at the mention of care homes.
I don't think she's showing any targetted disdain towards care homes. Remember this is nearly 2 weeks before lockdown. She just looks like she's thinking, "here we go again! He's banging on about care homes now". I just find that particular clip very prescient now we know the extent to which it has ripped through care homes.
"Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him."
Last edited by King Street Cat on Wed May 27, 2020 12:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I remember his appearance and he was absolutely correct. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. I was well aware of the effect of CV19 around the world from the get-go as I was dealing with the effects of travel/border restrictions every day and watching as country by country the situation deepened.
You could always do a cummings and predict it coming, by doctoring your posts, when it was already upon us.
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